BY MICHAEL EBOH

The value of cheques cleared by banks in Nigeria in the first half of 2011 stood at N9.919 trillion, said the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.

This, according to the CBN’s economic report for the first half of 2011, however, represents a decline of 4.73 per cent from N10.412 trillion cleared in the second half of 2010.

The report further noted that volume of cheques cleared dropped by 12.3 per cent to 16.188 million compared to 18.458 million in the second half of 2010.

Analysis of the volume of cheques cleared by zone shows that the Lagos clearing zone led with 82.1 per cent, Abuja followed with 8.4 per cent, Benin zone cleared 1.3 per cent, while in value, Lagos Zone recorded 75 per cent, Abuja 8.9 per per cent and Kano 3.1 per cent.

The CBN blamed the decline to the increased use of other payment channels such as the Real Time Gross Settlement, RTGS system, Nigerian Interbank Settlement System, NIBSS, Interbank Funds Transfer, IFT, Automated Teller Machines, ATMs, Mobile banking and internet payment systems among others.

The CBN report said that a significant appreciation was recorded in the value of electronic transaction in the country in the first six months of 2011, as the value of electronic card, e-card, transactions in the economy stands at N764.14 billion, rising by 25.22 per cent from N610.22 billion recorded in the second quarter of 2010.

The report said that the volume of electronic transactions appreciated by 57.36 per cent to 167.963 million from 106.74 million in the second quarter of 2010.

The report stated that ATMs remained the most patronized in the electronic payment transactions, as it accounted for 98.09 per cent of electronic payment transactions in the period under review.

According to the report, available data on various e-payment channels for the period under review indicated that the ATM remained the most patronized, accounting for 98.09 per cent, followed by the web 0.72 per cent and mobile payment 0.71 per cent.

“The Point of Sales, POS, terminal was the least patronized, accounting for 0.48 per cent of the total e-payment transaction. Similarly, in value terms, the ATM accounted for 91.37 per cent, the web 6.04 per cent, the POS 1.67 per cent, while mobile payments accounted for 0.92 per cent,” the report noted.

The report noted that the financial sector lost N1.95 billion due to fraud and forgery, while N17.2 million was lost to ATM-related fraud cases.

According to the report, the number of reported cases of attempted and/or successful fraud/forgery in the banking industry declined in the first half of the year, noting that there were a total of 1,393 cases of attempted or successful fraud and forgery, involving the sum of N6.5 billion.

“Out of this number, 410 cases were successful and resulted in a loss of N1.95 billion to the banks, compared with 5,960 reported cases of fraud and forgery, involving N11.6 billion with actual loss of N8.0 billion in the second half of 2010.

“Similarly, 116 ATM-related cases valued at N17.2 million were reported in the first half of 2011, compared with 411 cases amounting to N82.2 million recorded in the second half of 2010,” the report said.

The CBN blamed the decline in fraud in the banking sector to the improvements in risk management practices in the banking system.